To Be Free Once More
by Chash
Summary: On the day before the world ends, everyone looks for something beautiful. (various pairings, all het)


Title: To Be Free Once More  
  
Author: Chash  
  
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII  
  
Pairing: Various (Vincent/Lucrecia, Cid/Shera, Barret/Tifa)  
  
Rating: PG-13 for Cid's mouth.  
  
Notes: Vincent's story was not originally written for this, but I figured it worked out well enough, and it very well could be the day before the world ends, because maybe you don't use the longest seven days ever to breed an army of chocobos. Title comes from "Sound the Bugle" by Bryan Adams. To be free once more is, apparently, worth fighting for. The title of Red XIII's part is from the song of the same name. I refer to Red XIII as Nanaki in that part because I think he probably considers himself to be Nanaki, not Red XIII. This takes place right at the end of disc two, when Cloud sends everyone off the airship.  
  
Summary: On the day before the world ends, everyone looks for something beautiful.  
  
One. Unfinished Business (Vincent)  
  
On the day before the world ends, he goes to see her because he can't think of anything else to do. Everyone else is scrambling to find some order, something to make them happy, something worth fighting for, or something. That's what he assumes, at least. There is a barrier between him and the others, so he does not know. He feels as if he is viewing them all through water. He is viewing them through years of experience and, more, years of consideration in that coffin beneath the old mansion, with its boarded windows and dusty beds. When he went to sleep, the place was thriving, full of people, though it always had that same appearance of deadness, except for her. She always made everything seem alive. But when he woke, everyone was gone, except for the boy with the mako eyes and the others, but they don't understand.  
  
So he goes to see her, even though he is almost certain she is gone. He goes to see her because there is nothing else to do.  
  
He's sure he can feel the coldness of the wet ground under his feet even through the tough metal on his boots. He can feel the cold all the time, of course. It's almost poetic, but he's long past the time when he loved poetry.  
  
And he looks up and, inexplicably, she is there, all in white, as she always was, alive, as she always is. He can only stare for a moment.  
  
"Is my son dead?" she asks him, and her voice is not quite real, but then, he's decided, nothing is. He thinks he's already told her this, but he might not be as good a liar as he thought he was.  
  
"Almost," he says. "We have another day," he adds, though he knows she will not understand.  
  
"Another day before what?"  
  
"Before the meteor in the sky hits us."  
  
"Is that what's in the sky?" she asks, as if from far away, which she is, he supposes. "I read about that once."  
  
"Yes," he says and is almost smiling. "You did."  
  
"Vincent," she says, "I am very tired. Will it be over soon?"  
  
"Yes," he says again. "Very soon."  
  
"That's good. I have... I have missed you. Have you seen... Hojo?"  
  
"He's dead," Vincent manages and almost keeps the malice from his voice.  
  
"Good," she says. "I have wished it so many times."  
  
"So have I," he says softly, wanting to ask her things and not knowing how. "I... I loved you then, you know."  
  
"And now?" she asks in her hollow voice which he hears through the water that surrounds him.  
  
"Yes," he says, "always."  
  
"Thank you," she says, and he is almost happy. After everything, he would not have had her say she loved him, or anything else. After everything, there isn't anything to say.  
  
"If the meteor doesn't hit us," she says, as if she is speaking of something far less important, like the weather, "you should come back."  
  
"I will," he says.  
  
He isn't sure it's true.  
  
Two. Intent (Cid)  
  
When Cloud gives them the day to find out what they're fighting for, Cid finds himself back in Rocket Town without trying. He thought he'd find a pub or something, hitch a ride with Yuffie to the Turtle's Paradise, or with Red to Cosmo Canyon for a Cosmo Candle-—several Cosmo Candles even—- but somehow, here he is in Rocket Town, and before he knows it, he's outside Shera's house. When he sees it, he lets out a long string of curses, mostly for show, because he doesn't know what else to do. He didn't think he thought about what was going to happen after, but he finds, standing in front of Shera's house, that he thought he wasn't going to come back here until it was over, and he'd just sit down and yell for some goddamn tea, as if nothing had happened at all. And Shera would cry or laugh or hug him or do some damn fool thing like that, and he would just tell her to quit it and bring the tea.  
  
He never wanted to come back here unless he could tell her it was for keeps, but here he is, back, just waiting to go in and finding he doesn't know how. That damn kid told him to find his reason, and he'd had ever intention of doing nothing of the sort, of just spending the day drinking himself into oblivion and then going back to the ship to fight Sephiroth, because he didn't know what else to do. But here he is.  
  
And then, Shera just walks out, as if it's something that happens ever day, and when she sees him she just blinks and says, "Hello, Captain," and he finds himself being the one to embrace her, holding her close to him as he never wanted to. He remembers suddenly telling Cloud that Shera isn't his wife, the touchy way he objected, as if they very thought were repellant. With her in his arms, he thinks that it wouldn't be so bad after all.  
  
"Captain?" she asks, never calling him Cid, really, just Captain, except that once, in the rocket, when he didn't know what to say anymore. Damn if this thing hasn't changed him, made him into some kinda sissy.  
  
"What?" he asks, keeping his voice gruff without trying. Maybe that's why he smokes. Just to keep the gruffness in his voice.  
  
"Is the meteor going to stop?" she asks. She doesn't sound scared. He wants her to be scared. He wants to be protecting her, but she was always protecting him. They were always protecting each other, at the cost of everything. Why did it take him so long to notice?  
  
"We're going to stop it," he says.  
  
"I know. Where are Cloud and the others?"  
  
"We're taking a break," he tells her, aware of how awful it sounds. The world is about to end and they're on a break. What the fuck. "That kid wanted us to find out what we're fighting for. He wanted us to go and find it."  
  
She doesn't say anything for a minute and then, softly, "You came back."  
  
"Goddamn it, Shera," he says without venom, "where else was I going to go."  
  
He feels her arms hesitantly touch his back. "I'm glad. That you had nowhere else."  
  
He considers for a moment, then says, "I was gonna go get drunk. But I came here instead. Dunno why. Damnedest thing."  
  
"I know."  
  
"I'm going to leave again," he says. "But I'm going to come back. We have seven days before meteor hits. We're going to go get Sephiroth, and then I'm coming back, you hear? I'm coming back for you."  
  
He didn't mean to say the last part, but he can feel Shera crying on his shirt and decides that, for once, it's all right. Everything's all right.  
  
Three. Golden (Cait Sith)  
  
Reeve doesn't know when he started thinking of himself as Cait Sith. For sixteen years, he was John, and then he joined the Shinra and became Reeve, and he thought that since the name stuck for seventeen years, he would have finally gotten used to it, but then he went to join Cloud's group, and now he finds himself, inescapably, to be Cait Sith. Thirty-three years old, and he's a stuffed cat riding a giant Mog toy. Now that's fucked up.  
  
He'd been going to Midgar, but he found himself on the boat to Costa del Sol, and then in North Corel and walking into the Gold Saucer, waving to the man at the entrance as he goes to the Wonder Square.  
  
He supposes if he really is Cait Sith, it makes sense that this is the only place he can go. It makes sense that he can't bear to be anywhere else except here, among the slot machines and UFO catchers, among, strangely, his friends. The girl who trades GP for prizes hugs him and asks where he's been. The one by that mog game smiles and asks how he is. She says they were worried, and tried to get Dio to send a car. They thought he was sick, she says.  
  
He doesn't know what to say.  
  
He remembers being at Shinra, where no one could even remember his name well. He thinks of Cloud and all of them, who don't trust him at all, and he can't blame them. He can feel, in his real body, the dankness of the cell Shinra threw him in. Even though the entire operation's gone to hell, he's still in the jail, because no one cares enough to fish him out.  
  
But somehow, it doesn't matter.  
  
"Y'all don't have to worry," he finally tells the girls in the Wonder Square. "I've got a few things to do, but I'll be back soon. I miss ya too."  
  
He was always going to go back to Cloud. But he can go back with a clear conscience now. He was fighting because he had nothing to lose.  
  
Now he has something to come back for. He's never felt so alive.  
  
He doesn't notice the dripping wetness in the cell anymore. He's gone to a better place.  
  
He's going to lie to Cloud, he realizes. If they ask where he went, he'll say he went to Midgar. They don't really care about him, and he doesn't want to tell them he has something worth dying for. He doesn't want to tell them anything. He'll tell them he went to Midgar because they won't believe the truth. He doesn't care. When this is all over, he's going home. That's all that matters.  
  
Four. Family (Barret)  
  
Marlene asks where Tifa is.  
  
It's not the first thing she asks. She doesn't ask anything for a long time, she just laughs and cries and says Papa over and over again, because she's so happy to see him, and he's so happy to see her, and he never wants to leave ever again. But after dizzy moments of joy, Marlene finally asks where Tifa is.  
  
"She's with Cloud," he says finally.  
  
"Doesn't she wanna see me?" Marlene asks, and it breaks his heart.  
  
Barret always wanted a real family. He took Marlene in because he had to. He wanted to have a family with Eleanor, but it didn't work, and he ended up with Marlene, and he loves her more than anything. He wants Marlene to have a real family now, though at the moment, she doesn't even have a daddy, just some man always running around, fighting battles. It's for her sake, of course, but that doesn't make it better.  
  
He always figured eventually he and Tifa would get married. They never talked about it, but she was always there, and Marlene always loved her, and he loved her too. Loves her, really, because she's beautiful and strong and perfect, and Eleanor would have wanted him to move on, and he thinks he should, because Marlene needs a mama, and he needs a wife, and Tifa is perfect. But then Cloud came, and it was impossible to miss those looks she gave him, even if she could so easily miss the looks Barret gave her. And he thought that was all right, sort of, because he loved her, and wanted her to be happy.  
  
But then Cloud didn't love her, and it pissed him off. If Cloud couldn't see how perfect she was, then she shouldn't love him, but she did, even as he and Aeris moved closer and closer to being a done deal, even after Aeris... well, even after she was gone.  
  
And now Tifa is with Cloud on the ship, and he wanted to tell her to come with him, but he knew she wouldn't, even for Marlene.  
  
Barret knows Tifa thinks she has no where to go but Cloud, but it's not true, and he knows, one of these days, she's going to notice that Marlene's waiting for a mama, and Barret... Barret's just waiting for her. She's going to come. He doesn't know what he'll do if she doesn't.  
  
"Of course she does," he finally tells Marlene. "She wants to see you, but we're busy."  
  
"Because of the big red star in the sky?"  
  
"Yeah. Because of that."  
  
"Are you gonna make it go away, papa?"  
  
"Of course we are. And then me and Tifa are gonna come back for you, and we'll all be together again."  
  
She believes him, because she's a child, and the world is simple.  
  
Five. Outsider (Yuffie)  
  
Yuffie doesn't want them to know why she's fighting. She wants them to think it's for materia, or for her own gain, or something. She doesn't want them to know they're the most important thing in the world to her. She doesn't want them to know that she hasn't got anywhere to go when this all ends. She wants them to think she's selfish and stupid and childish.  
  
She wants them to think anything, just as long as they'll let her stay with them.  
  
Yuffie doesn't have to find something to fight for, because it's on the ship, it's that bond that ties them all together, but he's really reached her yet. She and Vincent and Cait Sith are on the outside, watching that perfect bond, but she thinks she's going to get in there yet. She's going to be one of them, and they'll all love each other, and it'll be perfect.  
  
But she won't tell them that yet. One day, they'll take her in, they'll be friends, and they'll all be together forever.  
  
And if she doesn't fight, that day won't come.  
  
But she won't tell them that. Let them think she went and stole some materia or annoyed everyone at Wutai. Let them think anything, as long as they let her stay.  
  
Six. Bright Lights (Red XIII)  
  
Grandpa is going to die, and Nanaki doesn't want to leave him, but Grandpa knows best, always knows best.  
  
He wants to go and visit, but he's afraid. He's afraid if he goes back, Grandpa will die. He's afraid the next time he sees Grandpa will be the last, and if he doesn't see him, he can't die. If he doesn't see him, he has to be alive, because surely he'd know if Grandpa died.  
  
Nanaki wants to see his grandfather more than anything. He wants to let Grandpa stroke his ears, like he did when Nanaki was a child, and he wants to hear Grandpa tell him that everything will be fine, that the planet will live, and his friends will live, and everyone will have a future where they will be respected as the proud warriors they are.  
  
That is what Nanaki wants, but he's not young enough anymore that he can believe that everything he wants will come true.  
  
Nanaki doesn't see his grandfather. He goes back down into the cavern where his father is and curls by the stone feet, trying to sleep and trying not to think, trying to let his father, whom he always considered a wastrel, protect him against everything, against meteor and death and the future and the past, but he is old enough to know it's not possible.  
  
When he leaves again, he knows that the next time he sees his grandfather, the man will die.  
  
He just hopes when he next sees his grandfather, he'll be old enough to face it. 


End file.
